


Coming Home and Coming Out

by starlightwalking



Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Aunts & Uncles, Biphobia, Bisexual Lucy Carlyle, Coming Out, F/F, First Kiss, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian Holly Munro, Sharing a Bed, awkward family relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 11:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13833576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: Lucy comes home, and Holly goes with her.





	Coming Home and Coming Out

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by a post on tumblr talking about how Lucy would probably be an aunt due to being the youngest of seven sisters, but accidentally turned into a Munlyle fic.  
> There is some biphobia & homophobia in this fic coming from Lucy's family; also a bit of aphobia but that's not really the focus of the story. It's got a happy ending, I promise!!  
> Also I do ship Locklyle, of course I do who doesn't? They're probably endgame but my love for Munlyle is astronomical and tbh in a perfect world Lucy's polyamorous with her lesbian gf and arospec bf and they all end up happy :) I'll write that fic one day, hopefully!!!  
> Hope you enjoy!

Lucy took a deep breath, staring at the door before her. Holly rested a hand on her back, doing her best to comfort her.

"Why did you convince me this was a good idea, Hol?" Lucy asked plaintively.

"It's been a year, more, since you've seen your family," Holly explained gently. "I know you have your differences, but family's family."

"You know, the last time I was here, Lockwood hired you," Lucy remarked, glancing at her in the teasing, sidelong way that made Holly's heart squeeze.

"It's good luck, then," she teased in return.

Lucy sighed and knocked on the door.

In an instant she was swarmed by children, four of them, all bearing some vague resemblance to her. Holly gasped in delight: she had known Lucy had siblings, but not that they were so young!

Lucy was taken aback by the tiny hands and excitable voices demanding her attention. "Woah!" she said, stepping back. "Give me a moment!"

Holly knelt down, eyes alight. "Hello!" she said, waving to the children. "My name is Holly Munro. Who are you?"

But the children drew back, suddenly shy around this stranger. A voice from inside the house called out: "Hey! Come back here!" and they turned and fled.

Lucy smiled awkwardly, shrugging to Holly. "Kids. What can you do?"

"I didn't know your siblings were so young!" Holly exclaimed. "I thought you said you were the youngest!"

"I am." Lucy sighed. "Six older sisters. Those were my nieces and nephews."

A woman loomed in the doorway: big, sweaty, hard-eyed. Her hair was the same color as Lucy's, but that's where the similarities stopped. An odd sort of grimace was plastered across her face.

"Lucy," she rumbled. "Come on in, girl." She turned a critical eye to Holly. "Who's this? You didn't mention you were bringing home a...friend."

Lucy didn't blush, but Holly saw her jaw tighten almost imperceptibly. From the way the woman said it, Holly thought she meant something else by "friend"—but she and Lucy weren't... and she didn't know if Lucy had told her family she was bisexual or not. And even when Holly laid awake at night wondering about whatever else she and Lucy could become, she had no idea if Lucy liked her back.

"I'm Holly Munro," she said primly, extending her hand and hiding the butterflies in her stomach. "Lucy and I are coworkers."

The woman grunted. "Mm. You come in, too, then, Miss Munro."

"Nice to see you, Mam," Lucy mumbled.

The house was a whirlwind of sound: the radio blared, children whooped with glee, mothers shouted warnings. There were no men to be seen anywhere, only three women, all older than Lucy, and a brood of their babies: three girls, a boy, and two more infants rocking at the mothers' chests.

Holly, who had grown up an only child, was overwhelmed by the chaos, but Lucy walked in unaffected. For someone whose Talent lay in Listening, the noise didn't much bother her.

Lucy's mother disappeared into another room, grumbling about a headache. Holly glanced at Lucy, murmuring, "She's, ah...shy?"

Lucy snorted. "That's just Mam."

"Does she not like me?" Holly fretted.

"No, that's just her face," Lucy assured.

"Lucy, darling!" cried one woman. "Welcome home!"

"Hello, Polly." Lucy greeted her with an unenthusiastic wave.

"You've gotten fatter," observed another woman.

"Says  _you_ ," Polly teased. "Don't give her a hard time, Mary!"

"I'm pregnant," Mary siad, turning up her nose. "I'm supposed to be fat. Unless Lucy's got something to tell us—"

"Nope!" Lucy insisted, turning a bright red.

"I'm sure even  _you_  must have found a man by now," said a third lady. "You didn't turn out all  _that_  ugly, Lucy."

"Uhhh..." Lucy looked down. "Well, I did have a boyfriend, but it...didn't work out."

"Too bad," said the final sister. "You ought to settle down, it would be good for you."

"Bella! I'm not even eighteen!" Lucy exclaimed. She glanced helplessly up at Holly, pleading silently for help. Holly, a lesbian, sympathized with her desire to  _stop_  that line of thinking.

"Um, hello," she interrupted, waving to the women. "It's nice to meet you.

"Who's  _this_?" Mary (the pregnant one) asked, rushing up to her with a sparkling smile.

"I'm Holly Munro," she said. "Lucy and I are co—"

"—friends," Lucy said, not even a hint of doubt in her voice. Holly beamed to her, honored beyond description to claim that title.

"Oh, Lucy! Is  _she_  why you dumped your boyfriend?" Mary laughed, elbowing her. "I always knew you were a bit queer, but—"

"Um," Holly interrupted, her stomach squeezing. Hearing that word come from a straight woman's mouth was a trial, especially when it was said with such derision.

"N-no," Lucy stammered. "I mean, yes, I am bisexual, but Lock...that's not why."

"Bisexual?" A different sister sniffed. "Really, Lucy, I'm glad Mam isn't here. It's bad enough that Hannah refuses to marry, calling herself some silly thing like asexual, but you too?"

"Where  _did_  Mam go?" Lucy asked, abruptly changing the conversation.

"Oh, she went off into the kitchen," a lady with a baby said.

"Have we introduced ourselves?" another woman asked. "I'm Bella, this is Mary and Peggy and Polly. Have you met the children?"

Before they could answer, Mary raised her voice, hollering: "Children! Come here!" A pattering of feet and shouts signaled their arrival, and soon four children were pulling at Holly's dress.

"This is my darling Stella," Polly said, "and baby Lewis!"

"I'm Harriet!" squealed the oldest child, who looked to be about five.

"My pretty girl," Peggy said. "And my boy James, and tiny Gretchen!" She cooed at the baby in her arms.

"Helen is my shy sweetie," Bella said, ruffling her girl's hair. "And our mother—you met her—she's Ferne Carlyle."

Names and baby faces swam in Holly's mind; even organized as she was, she didn't think she could keep track of who was who.

"Auntie Lucy, will you play with us?" begged the boy (James?). He gave Lucy the widest saddest eyes, and Holly knew there was no way anyone could deny him. Especially not when their mothers stared at them plaintively.

"Well, James," Lucy began, awkwardly tugging at her collar.

Holly swatted away her hand and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, ah, of course!" Lucy agreed. Holly heard a sigh of relief from all four sisters; relieved of their motherly duties, they turned back to gossiping amongst themselves.

Holly and Lucy spent a long and tiring day running around with four excitable children. At the end of it, they ate a decent dinner cooked by Mrs. Ferne Carlyle, tucked the children into bed, and were left with the options to either stay up with the chatty, insistent, heterosexual women or go to bed themselves.

Holly was relieved when Lucy plead exhaustion and led her to the guest room. "You can sleep here," she said, but broke off when she opened the door. The room was full of half-opened boxes, with no bed in sight.

"Uh..." Lucy frowned. "Well, I guess they turned it into storage. Let's check out my room."

"Ooh, what was little Lucy like?" Holly said. "Pony posters and glitter?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "In the height of the Problem? You're joking." She opened her door, revealing dark walls with posters of Fittes and Rotwell plastered all around.

"It's very...you," Holly observed.

Lucy scowled. "Yeah, I know, dark and dreary. I should really take those down. After knowing what we do about Tom and Marissa... Well, it's not like I sleep here often. By the time Mary has her baby they'll turn this into another nursery, no more doom and gloom."

"No, no, that's not what I meant," Holly protested.

Lucy led her inside and shut the door. She turned on a lamp, filling the place with ghostly light.

"Only one bed," she noted. "I'll sleep on the floor."

"No, I can," Holly insisted. "It's  _your_  bed."

"My bed's in Portland Row," Lucy said. She shook her head. "The kids are sweet, but I don't think I'll come back here again."

"Really?" Holly asked, touching her hand. "I thought you came here to...get away."

"I'm ready to go back," Lucy said. "Today's proved that. My family..."

"I'm sorry about them," Holly said. "My parents were quite accepting when I came out, and I didn't have to deal with sisters."

"Yeah." Lucy grimaced, sitting down on the bed. "Even with Lockwood and I...the way we are now, London is better than here in a million ways."

"How are you doing?" Holly asked gently. She sat beside Lucy, watching a tear slip down her cheek in the soft glow of the lamp.

"Well." Lucy wiped her face. "I think we just put too much hope into each other. I still love him, and he loves me, but we just...rushed, I suppose. After beating around the bush for so long, you think that wouldn't be an issue, but... Well, at least I know we're still friends and always will be. Maybe things will mend altogether, in time."

Holly wrapped her fingers around Lucy's own. "I'm here for you, Luce."

"Thanks." She sniffed. "Sorry. It's just, my sisters... at least Sally's living with her husband now, she always bothered me about boys the most. I swear I've come out to them all twenty times, they just  _forget_  and then get nasty all over again when I tell them the twenty-first time."

"What about Hannah?" Holly asked, only remembering the name because she'd been referred to as not being straight as well.

"She's oldest," Lucy said. "I miss her, but I'm glad she got out when she did. That was back when Father was still alive...he was even worse. She never liked anyone; she's aroace, I think, like George. Unlike me. Sure, I had bottled up feelings all the time, but it never  _worked_. And it still isn't." She sighed. "I'm not even sure what I'm saying anymore."

"Hey, hey, it's fine," Holly said gently. "Look at me."

Lucy turned and looked, eyes bloodshot but beautiful.

"It's gonna be okay," she said softly. "And I'm here, alright? Sure, we've had our troubles, but—"

"Hol," Lucy blurted out. "Not to—prove them right, or—I don't want a rebound from Lockwood, but—you, I mean, we—I think I—" She bit her tongue and looked away. "Oh, never mind."

Holly's heartbeat raced. "Luce?"

Lucy glanced up—and then they fell into each other, kissing and crying at the same time, and Holly had never known anything so good.

"I think I'm in love with you," Lucy mumbled, falling into her arms. "Or...somethin'."

Holly, still crying, held onto her tight. "Luce, I...you don't know how long I..."

"Shh, 'm tired," Lucy whispered. "Talk later? Okay? I promise, Hol."

"I don't think one of us will need to sleep on the ground after all," Holly agreed, and they lay curled up together on Lucy's childhood bed, warm and happy and content.

"Love ya, Hol," Lucy mumbled as she drifted off.

Holly sighed happily and whispered to the wonderful girl in her arms, "Love you too."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and commenting!  
> Find me on tumblr @arofili or on my L&C blog @hollymunro!


End file.
